Zanzibar. Zanzibar President Ali Mohammed Shein yesterday inaugurated the 9th House of Representatives amid uncertainty about budget financing and national cohesion.
Dr Shein said his government would introduce cost-cutting measures and clamp down on wasteful spending.
He promised to implement a number of key development projects through internal resources.
“We want to stand on our own feet, and we must do that. I want all ministers and permanent secretaries I will appoint soon to make sure this is realised,” he said.
Dr Shein also asked the Zanzibar Revenue Board (ZRB), Tanzania Revenue Authority, ports and airports authorities and all ministries with revenue sources to work hard in the next five years to generate revenue to fund development projects and enable the country to graduate into a middle-income economy.
“We will continue to accept aid from development partners when it is available and will work with them to speed up our development,” he said.
However, judging from Zanzibar’s 2015/16 Budget, any talk of cutting donor dependency is likely to be met with scepticism. The then Zanzibar Finance minister, Mr Omar Yusuf Mzee, told the House in June, last year, that the Budget was pegged at Sh830 billion, of which Sh450.5 billion was expected to be collected by ZRB.
Zanzibar expects to receive Sh347.1 billion from development partners to finance its current budget.
This is equivalent to 41.7 per cent of the government’s projected expenditure in the current financial year.
Dr Shein also talked tough on graft, promising to step up the war on corrupt public servants. He also banned non-essential foreign travel by public servants.
Last week, the Millennium Challenge Corporation terminated its relations with Tanzania, denying the country about Sh1 trillion ($472 million) in development aid after the US expressed its misgivings about the annulment of last year’s elections in Zanzibar and Tanzania’s enforcement of the widely-condemned Cybercrimes Act.
But Dr Shein was defiant yesterday, saying Zanzibar would soon review and pass the controversial law, which is currently in force in Tanzania Mainland only.
He also confirmed that he wouldn’t form a government of national unity (GNU) since no opposition party had met the minimum requirements for a power-sharing arrangement.
He told the House of Representatives that he would not appoint a First Vice President, who would have come from an opposition party that got at least 10 per cent of the vote in the contentious March 20 repeat elections.
Dr Shein garnered 91.4 per cent of the vote, with Hamad Rashid Mohammed of the Alliance for Democratic Change (ADC) being placed a distant second on three per cent.
Section 39 (3) (i) and (ii) of the Zanzibar Constitution states that if no opposition party wins the requisite number of votes or when there is only one presidential candidate, then the First Vice President’s post will go to the party with the second largest number of seats in the House of Representatives.
However, CCM won in all 54 constituencies that were up for grabs in the repeat polls that were boycotted by the Civic United Front (CUF), which was the ruling party’s partner in the previous Government of National Unity.
Dr Shein said CCM’s clean-sweep in the elections meant that he did not have the constitutional mandate to appoint the First Vice President.
“This is a constitutional matter. I have to clarify this because there are those who think that we already have the right candidate for the position, but I cannot make an appointment as this will be in violation of the constitution,” he said.
Dr Shein last week reappointed Mr Seif Ali Idd as Second Vice President. Mr Idd had served in the position for five years.
Yesterday, Dr Shein nominated as Members of the House of Representatives three opposition politicians who stood against him in last month’s elections.
They are Mr Hamad Rashid Mohammed (ADC), Mr Said Soud Said (AFP) and Tadea’s Juma Ali Khatib. Those from CCM are Mr Ali Karume, Mr Amina Salum Ali, Mr Mohammed, Mr Aboud and Mr Moulin Castico.
Responding to CUF’s vow to engage in “passive resistance”, Dr Shein said he wouldn’t lose sleep over the pronouncement. He also warned that the government would act “firmly and decisively” to maintain peace in Zanzibar.
The Citizen
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